Juneau, Skagway, Haines, and Hubbard Glacier

It's been pretty busy the past couple of days but now I have some time to catch up. Since I last posted We have been to Juneau, Skagway, Haines, and Hubbard Glacier.Sunday we were in Juneau. Our excursion was to have a picnic with the brewers, a visit to Mendenhal Glacier, a tour of the Alaska Brewing Company, and a tour of a Salmon Hatchery. The weather for the picnic was a little cold, it was about 55 degrees and there was scattered sprinkles. They were serving King Crab legs, Grilled Salmon and of course some beer. It was pretty cool getting to talk with the brewers about their beer, and about living in Alaska. They had 3 beers at the picnic, Alaskan Amber, ESB and the Summer Ale. They all were good, but the ESB was my favorite, it had a good hop profile, more so than I'm used to in the ESB style. The crab wasn't too shabby either.Fun Fact: Juneau is the capital city of Alaska, but there are no roads that connect the city to the rest of the continent, the only way in or out is by boat or plane.On the way to the glacier we saw two bald eagles perched on some utility towers crossing the sound. Not something you see every day in Pennsylvania, but up here. it's pretty common, I've seen 6 over the past 2 days. There isn't much to say to describe the Mendenhal Glacier, it's big, it's blue, It's icy, and it's pretty far away. The photos are better so stay tuned for them.The brewery tour was a normal brewery tour It was interesting to see how they added on when they had expanded in the past. I was surprised that they produce 100,000 barrels a year. After the tour came the tasting, yay! I had their pale ale, stout, and the smoked porter.Sorry Bob, I didn't see your comment about getting a case of the smoked porter before today, I'm not entirely sure if they had full cases of Smoked Porter available at the gift shop. But I should be able to pick one up for you in Seattle. I did get a brewery exclusive, a vintage 4 pack of smoked porter from 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001. It's probably going be the centerpiece of my next tasting party. I'm also bringing home one of the Amber, ESB, Pale Ale and Summer Ale for a tasting.After the brewery we headed to the salmon hatchery, this is the time of year that the salmon are spawning the hatchery was pretty packed with salmon. It was kind of like the carp at the spillway at Pymatuning for those of you in Western PA. After stopping at the hatchery we headed back to the ship.We ate dinner on the ship at the buffet, so nothing exciting to report about the menu tonight. We then walked around Juneau for a little bit but all the stuff around the pier was pretty touristy and not that exciting. We went back on the ship and just enjoyed the scenery.Monday morning at 7am the ship had docked at Skagway, the old mining town at the mouth of the Skagway river. This was the destination for the steamships that brought the prospectors headed for the Yukon gold fields. Our excursion was to take a fairy to Haines for a bus tour of the town, and the tasting at the Hanes Brewing Company, North America's smallest production brewery.The tour started off with Fort Seward an old army base that was in use from 1900 until 1947. The base was created to handle a pending border dispute between Canada and the United States. Nothing ever happened and it remained in use until after World War 2. Except for the amount of snow, I would think that it was a sweet place to be stationed.Do you remember the Disney movie White Fang? It was filmed in Haines and they built up a set that was the main street of Dawson City. When the film was over the movie makers were going to tear down the set but the residents of Haines wanted to keep it. The residents of Haines moved the set from the river up near town and renamed it to Dalton Ciity. Now the buildings are used for shops and one of the buildings contains the Haines Brewing Company.We had a Salmon and Beer tasting in The Yukon, the tavern that was used in the movie. We tasted 7 beers from Haines Brewing and they all were tremendous. Trail Pale Ale, a Red Ale, a Spruce Ale, Lookout Stout, IPA, Black Fang Imperial Stout, and Barley Wine. The Spruce Ale uses fresh spruce tips in the beer which gives it a fruity flavor. The Lookout Stout is in the style of an export stout, it doesn't contain any roasted malt, just pale malt and un-mated roasted barley, something that I'm going to try in my next stout.. The IPA was a over the top IPA that uses UK hops instead of the more frequently used hops from the northwest. The Imperial Stout was very good as was the barley wine. Haines Brewing doesn't bottle,he only sells growlers and kegs, so the only place that you will be able to experience these great beers in Haines or Skagway.We had to catch the fairy back to Skagway so I didn't get to go around Haines for photos, and when we got back to Skagway there wasn't much time so we didn't even go into the town. From what I heard, it's a pretty big tourist trap, so I wasn't missing much. Instead we relaxed and tried out the Jacuzzi for the first time this week.For dinner I had Escargo, cold black cherry soup, salad, scallops and shrimp scampi, and lemon cheesecake for desert.With dinner I had a LaConner Pilsner, which is a pretty good pilsner, better than most IMO.This early this morning we arrived at Hubberd Glacier where we stayed for about 2 hours. There aren't any excursions to the glacier. We stay on the ship while it stops about 1/4 mile from the glacier and watch it calve (fall) into the water. Everything here is huge from the glacier to the mountains. When the ice breaks off and falls into the water it sounds like thunder, it certainly is awe inspiring. I have some video of one of the cave-ins that I think turned out pretty good.Now we are on our way back south for the stop in Ketchikan tomorrow morning, we have a cooking with beer seminar tonight and no other obligations. I think I have a nap on the schedule.